Asbury Angels

All profits from sales of the song will be donated to the Asbury Angels Project.

The "Asbury Angels" theme song came to Marc Ribler in a dream.

On July 19, 2012, the guitarist and singer-songwriter woke up before the crack of dawn to jot down the first lyrics to the song, which he recorded later that day.

The dream happened a bit more than a week after Marc Ribler and Friends performed their first "Fifty Licks" show, a tribute to the Rolling Stones at a sold-out Stone Pony that was also the initial fundraiser for the Asbury Angels Project, which honors influential members of Asbury Park's music scene by installing plaques on benches along the city's boardwalk.

"Growing up as a musician in the last of the so-called hey day of the Jersey Shore music scene gave me some insight and deep sentimental affinity to the topic of the Asbury Angels, who they are and what they stand for," Ribler said.

The day after he recorded a demo of the Asbury Angels theme song, Ribler played the tune for concert promoter and Asbury Angels founder Tony Pallagrosi, who then played it for the other board members of the Asbury Angels Project. Pallagrosi and the other board members thought the song was perfect to represent the Asbury Angels.

"Needless to say, I was extremely honored," Ribler said.

He called friends J.T. Bowen, Lance Larson and Rich Mercurio to help him record the song.

On Friday Jan. 18, 2013, during the Light of Day music festival at the Stone Pony, Ribler and a group of New Jersey's finest singers and musicians performed the Asbury Angels song, which was recorded live. On that evening, when the second group of Angel inductees were honored, the sold-out Pony crowd was encouraged to sing along with the band's chorus as the song was performed.

Microphones placed strategically throughout the club made it possible to digitally record everyone's voices simultaneously, and Ribler later was able to place both the crowd and the musicians on the final mix of the song.

"This truly made it a community effort, and community is what Asbury Angels is all about," Ribler said.